Camping encourages students to develop a relationship with nature while presenting them with both physical and emotional challenges that foster self-reliance and cooperative teamwork. And at the heart of Thacher’s dedication to the outdoors are our week-long camping trips, called Extra-Day Trips or EDTs, that the entire community enjoys each fall and spring. In faculty-led groups of six to twelve, students head off to such varied destinations as the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Yosemite National Park, the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, the Los Padres National Forest, the Lost Coast, and Joshua Tree National Park to climb, backpack, horse camp, kayak and canoe. Over the course of their days and nights in the outdoors, students learn and use basic camping skills, often stretching themselves in ways they may not have expected and learning valuable lessons about cooperative living in the wilderness. Thacher’s program also gives avid outdoorswomen and men the chance to refine their skills and earn individual rankings as A- or B-Campers.